OWL OF THE DESERT
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High Noon

10/7/2022

3 Comments

 
Picture
​at half past three he sat in a worn chair across from me in the waiting room and pretended interest in last year’s magazine reporting the price of a barrel of oil shipped from the Middle East, crossing the Atlantic, placing it somewhere opposite of Eden.

​
i was no good with directions. there was an old-fashioned map drawn on the wall above him: East would be to the right of the Middle West, but hardly a cowboy could be found. barrels of consecrated oil had dripped down my scalp. the price of something last year was meaningless.
 
he cradled the magazine but was distracted, perhaps unsure of the coordinates his life had struck. our glances alternated as the two hands of a clock. maybe if our eyes intersected, longitude and latitude, i would know where this was, in what time i sat, whose timeline i shared beyond my own. my gold tooth throbbed.   
 
at four we waited alone except for the quiet chirping of a grandfather clock hanging over my head. the watchful eye of a sea maiden adorning the map heaved her chest with exposed nipples the color of wine you buy to impress a girl, like arrow heads, pointing somewhere South if you follow.

​she said, ‘drill for petroleum the sea sands wait drill drill where the salt water hides oil beneath its skirt drill drill.’ i ignored the siren, lost in thought, wondering if he was a faster draw than me. nowadays who could tell but i always looked for a holster.   
 
at half past four i withdrew a pocket watch from my waistcoat and checked the time. i listened to the lead seconds. two times did not sync which i found irritating, out of step. i could not tell which was correct without a third. but what a difference a half a second made. if repeated enough those half seconds could carry eternity. longitude and latitude were inadequate dimensions.   
 
the siren was silent now which was more unsettling than her voice. at five he reached into his pant pocket and I reached toward mine but it was only a piece of dried beef in his hand. i got a good look at his hand, which spoke of him as a man, a soul stretched along the fingers whose nail tips reflected a youth unturned and knuckles white as an uncooked egg, translucent.

​shouldn’t they be locking up now it’s half past five? his long hair was not-young but i saw none of the premature gray around his temples. the oiled hair was slicked back into a ponytail. i traced the space between the rows the teeth of his comb had left in its wake.   

the magazine had no more words for him and lay limp in his lap. between us was empty space keeping us apart as if filled with flying buckshot. the map to the North depicted a flat earth rolled out like a scroll, a world that was not the world, the world between us unspoken, as strangers reckon. but we were not strangers. i searched for words to cross the gulf, this Southern divide that parted meaning, life shorn of sound, but my voice was lost. even if i could speak i don’t know if he would hear. don’t take hearing for granted.
 
at six i left the waiting room and went where all dead go.
3 Comments
Clark Burt
10/10/2022 12:29:00 pm

I get the feeling that neither one was excited about leaving, nor was either excited about staying. What were they leaving behind? What was there to stay for? But where were they going? Not sure why you took out the story of Lazarus and the rich man? Felt like I was in an English Literature class. Help me out.

Reply
Tim Merrill
10/10/2022 04:19:22 pm

Well, I am glad you found it confusing. From the confusion you may have experienced ideas or made connections that left-brained writing is unable to achieve.

I have been studying Jesus's parables and, while this was not a parable, I wanted to try something abstract.

You're right, I originally included the parable of Lazarus and the rich man; I put it at the end because I didn't want to influence the reader's first impressions; but then I removed it because this piece of creative writing became about more than the gulf.

Here's some help:

"Oil" is the main theme. There is consecrated oil; oil to comb hair; and petroleum that is sold and trafficked; and the oil beneath the sea. All kinds of oils and uses. Now, in the scriptures oil is usually associated with the Holy Spirit and the oil in the Virgins' lamps.

The other two main themes are: the compass points of East, West, North and South; and I returned to an old favorite of mine: time and eternity and how the two collide.

You probably picked up on the Western themes of Cowboys and Indians, too.

The sea maiden could not be more obvious: she is a depiction of the Whore of the All the Earth, even Babylon; who made the nations drink the WINE of her fornication.

So now does it make more sense?

Reply
Clark Burt⁸
10/11/2022 08:15:22 am

Yes, that helps a lot. ?? I like the comparison of the oils and the whore's insistence raping the earth, and can feel the gulf.

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  • Home
  • Poetry
    • Fleeing Egypt >
      • Tower of Babel
      • The Orchard
      • Tithing Settlement
      • Chastity for Churches
      • Sign
      • Cleaning House
      • Elijah
      • Rulers of Sodom
      • Beware
      • Two Churches
      • Beginning At My Sanctuary
      • Toll Road
      • Get it Strait
      • Corporation Sole
      • The Religion of the Circle R
      • Fig Tree
      • Eve
      • New Jerusalem
      • Shemlon's Shore
    • Ascending Sinai >
      • Ark
      • Sin of the Calf
      • An Idol Observation
      • Dew from Heaven
      • I love you, Elder Holland
      • Easter
      • How Sweet
      • Haiku
      • The Barn
      • Patron Saint
      • A Conversation with Brigham Young
      • Mine Testimony
      • The Meadow
      • The Gardens
      • Ice Fishing
      • Without End
      • Forest
      • Continental Divide
      • A Great Sacrifice
    • Promised Land >
      • Lanolin
      • Zion
      • Wisdom
      • Take Up Your Cross
      • Was the Sun the Same
      • Plain and Precious
      • Bridegroom
      • Faith
      • Amos
      • But First
      • Wax
      • Parable of the Piano
      • Repentance
      • Wake Up, Child
      • Cold Storage
      • Covered Wagon
      • Multiply and Replenish
      • Rollercoaster
      • The Baptist
    • Seven Stations of the Cross >
      • Jesus Condemned to Die >
        • Life Signs
        • Fashionable Religion
        • Tithing Declaration
        • A Pretty Important Detail
        • Jesus is All
        • Salt Lake Temple
        • Zion in the Lion's Den
        • High Noon
        • Bookmark
      • Jesus Stumbles and Falls >
        • Unveil
        • But Faith
        • Sifting
        • The Ballerina
        • Credit Declined
        • Prayer Circles
        • Work Out Your Salvation
        • Lovebirds
        • Unrequited
      • Simon of Cyrene Bears the Cross >
        • Proxy
        • Chartres
        • Like the Nile
        • Artificial Intelligence
      • Women of Jerusalem Weep
      • Jesus Stripped of His Garment
      • Jesus Nailed to the Cross
      • Burial and Resurrection
  • Blog
    • Previous Posts >
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